One of the greatest challenges for an amateur public speaker is learning how to connect with the audience. When you establish a connection with the audience, you are immediately more comfortable on stage; the audience’s response validates you.

You can tell the difference between seasoned and inexperienced speakers. Seasoned speakers draw in the audience right from the beginning. They usually start with an engaging tease, inquiry, ice-breaker, joke or a compelling story.

Inexperienced speakers hesitate to take risks. They are reluctant to put themselves out there and the audience can sense it from the very first line they speak. There’s a good chance they will choose to stand behind the lectern, holding a handful of cue cards which hopefully they are not reading in full form. The audience may be left feeling uncomfortable and uninterested in what the speaker has to say.

What tells a good speaker apart from a bad speaker is their ability to get past the distance between them and the audience. Inexperienced speakers have a tendency to read from their notes or ‘perform’ well-rehearsed lines. You can know your material but it won’t matter when your audience isn’t really listening to it (even if they look like they are).

It’s essential that speakers build a rapport with their audience to push down the wall between them and the audience.

Take a look at these powerful audience participation tips:

1. Begin with an ice-breaker

Ice-breakers set the tone for the rest of the speech. You can begin by a short two minute introduction about yourself and your credentials but it won’t have the impact of a good joke or story about something that may have happened earlier in the conference or in your life. It doesn’t need to leave everyone rolling on the floor; a few giggles are good enough. I like to get them to respond audibly or physically three times in the first 30 seconds.

2. Take a quick poll

It’s in your interest to put the audience to work as soon as you can. Ask a question and get them to raise their hands. Or, up your game and use some of the real-time polling devices via text messaging or remote cues (see item #4). Be sure to frame your question in a way that will maximize participation and keep the question positive.

A basic examples would be, “raise your hand if you’re here because you want to progress in your careers”. Then “raise your hand if you want to have more fun while you’re doing that”. Finally, finish that up with “And who thinks raising your hand at the beginning of a speech is overused?”  Finish it up with some levity and let them know we all learned this in Kindergarten.

3. Do activities with your audience members

You’ve definitely broken down speaker-audience barriers when you have audience members on the stage with you. Call up three audience members, give them a scenario and ask them each how they will respond it. Ask the audience who they think has the best response, state the positives and negatives of each then reveal which one was the best and how it can be improved.

As a business magician and emcee, I frequently have audience members participating on and off stage in amazing and hysterical ways. Most important – NEVER embarrass, ridicule or harass any of those helpers. Make them the star or hero and you will always be able to get your next helper with ease.

4. Use technology

Now that everyone has smart-phones, you can use apps such as sli.do to maximize audience participation. With such apps you have the option of conducting live polls, you allow your audience to ask questions and display live tweets.  If you use this, always do a test poll up front like “if you were a Muppet, which would you be?”  You want them to have a playful test example to ensure they know how to use it and how it instantly reacts on the screens.

5. Stimulate debates within your audience

Ask your audience questions that can trigger debates amongst them. Of course, you can’t have audience members shouting at each other, but you can walk into the audience and pass around a couple of mikes. Get a healthy conversation going.

Jon Petz is a business inspirational keynote speaker that knows all about keeping the audience hooked. He’s known for his amazing sense of humor that keeps his audience laughing. He’s unlike any other keynote speaker you would have had in your previous conference.